When I first trusted in Jesus, I was excited to know that I had found peace with God. The promise that I was going to heaven was a great encouragement. But if I’m honest, that was about all I understood. The more I read the Bible, the more I realized that salvation is far bigger and deeper than I had ever imagined. Consider four signs that your understanding of the gospel may be too small.
1. You think the gospel stops at the forgiveness of sins
I used to just think that God forgave my sins because Jesus took my punishment on the cross. That’s true, but the Bible says there’s more to it. Two theological words help expand our understanding: expiation and propitiation. Expiation describes the fact that Jesus took away our guilt. Like the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, Jesus’ death takes away our sin. Propitiation describes the fact that Jesus’ death satisfies God’s justice. It’s like the way the Old Testament sacrifices are described as a pleasing aroma to God (Leviticus 1:9).
If you break a neighbour’s window, expiation is paying for the window and dealing with the damage, while propitiation is apologizing and making peace with the neighbour, so that the relationship is fully restored. Jesus’ death doesn’t just spring us from the penalty box; it puts us back in the starting line-up and restores us to good terms with the coach. That’s the sense behind verses like 1 John 4:10 where it says, “he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
2. You think God’s grace toward you began the day you believed
Because I had never given much thought to God until I put my trust in Him, I assumed He hadn’t given me much thought either. I figured that He had provided for my salvation but had little to do with me until I turned and laid hold of it. The Bible paints a very different picture.
Ephesians 1:4-5 says that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world” and “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” God’s plans for us stretch back into eternity. And Romans 8:30 presents an unbroken path from eternity past to eternity future. It says, “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” The point seems to be that all those whom God determined to rescue were called in such a way that they would inevitably believe and thus be justified, or counted righteous, and finally be glorified.
3. You think that holding onto Jesus depends mainly on you
When I trusted in Jesus, I thought about all of the challenges that might come and worried that I might turn back. I believed in God’s faithfulness but doubted my own. What I didn’t realize was that Jesus promised to hold onto me. In John 6:39, Jesus said, for instance, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” And again, in John 10:28, He said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” The gospel declares that our salvation is secure, not because we count on ourselves, but because we can count on Jesus to hold onto us.
4. You think the Christian hope is escaping to heaven
Some people have a bucket list of places in the world they want to visit before they die. Even Christians assume that if they want to see a particular place, they’ve only got one life to do it because afterward they’ll spend eternity in heaven. While it’s true that Christians go into God’s presence when they die, the time is coming when God will renew the heavens and the earth and descend to the earth to live with us forever. Hear the promise in Revelation 21:1-3. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.’”
Because of this, Randy Alcorn advocates that instead of a bucket list, Christians should have a post-bucket list of all the things they hope to do after they die. As he puts it: “For the Christian, death is not the end of adventure, but our exit from a world where dreams and adventures shrink, and entrance into a world where dreams and adventures forever expand.”
The gospel is bigger than many of us first realize. It reaches back into eternity past, secures our future, and promises the renewal of the entire creation. The Fellowship Affirmation of Faith gives a helpful summary of the Bible’s teaching on salvation. Read through it and consider whether your gospel is too small.
We believe salvation encompasses the renewal of all things, the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise of the kingdom of God, and his ruling over all things in the new heavens and the new earth. We believe that the salvation of believers is by the sovereign, electing grace of God; that by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a vicarious, substitutionary, expiatory, and propitiatory death; that justification is by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection; that those whom God has effectually called shall repent, believe, and follow Jesus, and will be divinely preserved and finally perfected by the Spirit into the image of the Lord.
In awe of Him,
Paul
